Suchergebnisse

This overview summarizes the key findings of the eight chapters and one policy note. It is organized as follows. The first section provides a background of Guangdong, while the second describes the current situation of inequality in the province. Next is a discussion of the potential impacts of the transfer of industrial activities ('industrial transfer') in mitigating regional disparity, followed by the recommendation of a three pillar strategy for Guangdong. The fifth section focuses on the elimination of absolute poverty through the minimum living allowance (Dibao) system, and the sixth turns to policy actions needed to increase opportunities for the rural population by moving them to jobs, increasing their access to finance, and ensuring that their land rights are better protected. The seventh section further assesses Guangdong's options for investing in people through more equitable service delivery in compulsory education, skill development, and health care, with the aim of enhancing the capacity of the poor to seize and utilize opportunities. The last section concludes this overview.

Big Stories Small Towns is a collaborative transmedia documentary project. The project 'tagline' is "Local Stories with Global Impact". To that end, the aim of the Big Stories project in this iteration was to scale the work across Australia and the Asia Pacific to build a diverse and inspiring global portrait of country life. This research spans two residencies in the Raja Ampat Regency of West Papua and on the island of Flores, Indonesia. The aim of this work was to explore mechanisms for inter-cultural co-creation with fellow filmmakers in the Asia Pacific region who could then translate the process of the Big Stories project into their communities and deliver stories to the online platform of bigstories.com.au. A key question that underpinned this research was how could the co-creative processes of the Big Stories project be translated into other cultural settings beyond Australia? Big Stories films have, in the past, supported a more nuanced understanding of small town communities and local social innovations. Discussions with filmmakers in Indonesia and West Papua indicated a range of issues that a participatory storytelling process and the resulting stories could address. In West Papua, the project built on relationships and work undertaken by Engage Media with their Papuan Voices series (https://www.papuanvoices.net/). The lead filmmaker in residence for the Big Stories project in West Papua - Enrico (Rico) Aditjondro – had overseen the development and delivery of the Papuan Voices project and had long standing relationships and interest in the region. Rico proposed to undertake a co-creative documentary process working with a number of emerging West Papuan filmmakers. The situation in West Papua for journalists and independent filmmakers is often problematic as West Papua has been under Indonesian occupation since 1960. Many West Papuans have been seeking a referendum on independence - 'Merdeka' - but the Indonesian government rejects the idea. Since the struggle began, thousands have been killed and imprisoned. Whilst in the 60s indigenous Papuans were the majority, nowadays they are outnumbered by migrants from various parts of Indonesia, creating continuous social political tensions. Envrionmental degradation of the area due to logging and mining has placed further pressure on traditional cultures and livelihoods of Papuan people. Independent Papuan oriented media is actively discouraged by Indonesian authorities. One month prior to starting Big Stories: West Papua pre-production two French documentary makers (Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat) had been imprisoned while filming in the highlands town of Wamena. Based on this recent event, the Big Stories project sought to indirectly address local issues through stories of everyday life that refer to issues of maintaining culture, preserving the environment and internal issues around Indonesian migration to the area. When set against the backdrop of West Papua's struggles, the stories are intended to raise awareness of the fragile cultural, social and environmental state and to shine a light on those who are caring for and sustaining Papuan community and culture. Rico also worked with Papuan filmmakers Menas Membrasar and Ina Mayor as local content producers. Menas and Ina produced stories about inspiring teachers, traditional craftsmen and environmental workers. Big Stories supported Ina, Menas and other West Papuan creatives including FX Making to ensure that the legacy of the Big Stories project continues by facilitating them to create future projects and a filmmaking collective. In addition to his work in West Papua Rico also identified Dodid Wijanarko as a potential collaborator. Dodid had extensive experience as a photographer and documentary filmmaker in Flores and West Papua. After discussing the project with Dodid he identified a women's weaving collective called Lepo Lorun in Flores that had been started by Alfonsa Horeng in 1998. The collective model of self managed co-operation based on traditional weaving practices had given the women economic independence and subsequently been replicated across the island, employing over 1200 women in different collectives across Flores. The traditional weaving of Tenun Ikat embody the stories of Flores and are now being seen, beyond Flores, as works of art and cultural significance. The Ikat is present at all cultural occasions in Flores - from birth to death. Traditionally a women's worth was measured in her weaving prowess, however the Ikat is also the woman's canvas on which the stories, mythologies and relationships are captured in thread. Dodid identified Alfonsa as a 'positive deviant' – someone who had been able to transform her community (and a number of other communities) through local social innovations. The stories and photo essays were produced by the Big Stories team working with Indonesian filmmaker Dodid Wijanarko and a team of Indonesian filmmakers and artists who came from across the region - from Java to West Papua - to create stories, images and music with the community. The research in Flores explores co-creativity and the production of cultural space and identity using a range of media (from the Tenun Ikat weaving to songs and films). The intention was to provide stories that could support continued growth of the collective, build community pride in the cultural of local people and could speak to broader Indonesian audiences to inform them not only of the stories behind the Tenun Ikat practice, but also re-mediate stereotypical views of Flores as an island that lacked culture and innovation. Outputs include: • Feature length documentary Au Lorun (I Am Weaving) • Website created on Big Stories, Small Towns platform with short documentaries and photo essays • Workshops on filmmaking and photography run in the community • Local screenings and performances supporting extensive local participation The project was sponsored by the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australia International Cultural Council and Screen Australia.

Poster Division: Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences: 1st Place (The Ohio State University Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum) ; The United Nations (UN) entrusted the UN Habitat in 2006 with the responsibility to assist member states to monitor and gradually attain the "cities without slum" target, also known as Target 11 of the Millennium Development Goals (Millennium Development Report 2015). In large cities in India, migrants frequently squat on public land in inner city where they have easy access to basic amenities such as sanitation, drinking water, and health care as well as job opportunities. Target 11 prescribes its member states to provide tenure rights to the poor squatting in public land in large cities. However, instead of ensuring land-tenure rights city governments in India have displaced the poor from the inner city to the periphery through forced resettlement programs. Following economic reforms in 1991, large cities in India opened up to the global investment market and adopted decentralized governance forming localized public-private partnerships called Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Since the 1990s city governments along with the ULBs and transnational firms (TNCs) – what I call the city government-ULB-TNC complex or Growth coalition– have undertaken projects to restructure the social and spatial composition of the city to create a slum-free city attracting foreign investment (Ghertner 2011, Kundu 2009). In Delhi alone, the city government has evicted around 420,000 slum households in the inner city since the 1990s, constituting 15 percent of the city's population (Sheikh et al. 2014). Approximately 50 percent of the displaced poor have been resettled in the planned resettlement colonies located in the periphery. The resettlement policy permits the resettled to live on—but not own, rent or sell—plots, and prohibits commercial activities in the resettlement colonies (Sheikh & Banda 2014). However, approximately 40 percent of the resettled sold their plots through illegal land markets controlled by land mafias who sell the plots to other displaced poor lacking entitlement to resettlement, thereby creating new forms of illegal settlements within the planned resettlement colonies. I ask why the resettled are restricted from owing, selling or renting their plots and why do they sell their plots through illegal land markets? How and why illegal land markets are produced and what are their implications in terms of the expansion of the city and the lived experiences of the local residents? My research strategies draw from qualitative methods informed by critical ethnography, feminist studies as well as post-structural theory. Countering the conventional science-inspired triangulation approach, which involves the use of multiple methods to verify the Truth, I follow Ellington's 'crystallization' as field approach to recognize the existence of multiple realities viewed from different lenses (Ellingson 2009; Elwood 2010). Drawing from semi-structured interviews and focus groups with local residents during my field research in summer 2015 at Savda Ghevra, the largest resettlement colony in Delhi, I explain how lack of tenure rights of resettlement plots and prohibition of commercial activities in these plots compel the unemployed poor to take up illegal avenues to earn livelihood. I also conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with multiple actors such as local leaders, land mafias, NGO workers, local lawyers assisting residents in resolving property conflicts and actors of the Growth coalition to understand their perception about as well as lived experiences of illegality. Interviews with officials at the Growth coalition also reveals that they are aware that residents of the resettled colonies routinely sell their land illegally, and moreover, both the residents and the Growth coalition recognize that illegal activities will be suppressed in future through the eviction of the new illegal settlers by the government to grab land for urban expansion. Archival research shows that 'legitimation,' the act of making something acceptable to the public, is an important strategy for land grabs in urban planning in India. For example, throughout the 1990s the middle class, the ULBs and the TNCs have identified squatter settlers in the inner city as encroachers, 'nuisance,' and agents of environmental degradation to legitimize their plea for slum eviction to the judiciary issuing court orders for eviction (Baviskar 2003 ;Ghertner 2011,2012). Moving beyond the common conception that resettlement territorializes the poor, my research shows that resettlement also is a process creating new forms of illegal settlements, legitimizing further rounds of eviction by the Growth coalition to acquire more land for development projects. The threat as well as experience of multiple rounds of displacement legitimized through the production of illegality thereby constructs precarity, a persistent condition of uncertainty having deleterious consequences among the urban poor (Ettlinger 2016). I draw from Foucault's conceptualization of 'popular illegality'—the tacit and tolerated non-enforcement of laws—which recognizes that illegality is essential for the normal functioning of the society and that it becomes an organized form of governance (Foucault 1977). Illegal activities do not necessarily indicate the absence of order or norms; rather, the widespread nature of illegal practices constitutes 'normal' life. For example, Foucault explains that the modern penal system was not designed to eliminate crime but to differentiate 'rights' from 'wrongs' and assign punishment to particular crimes (Foucault 1977). In the resettlement colonies in Delhi informal institutions of land markets and illegal commercial activities sustain a locally organized system of livelihood for the poor, setting the government free of welfare-related responsibilities such as providing land tenure or jobs. My research contributes to a broader ongoing debate on the suitability of Foucauldian framework of analysis in the international context as well as to the literature on the interaction of a regime of poverty and regimes of planning. ; A one-year embargo was granted for this item.

Inclusive innovation seeks to expand access to essential goods and services, thereby improving quality of life, and enhancing economic empowerment through knowledge creation, acquisition, adaption, absorption, and deployment efforts targeted directly at the needs of excluded populations. Inclusive innovation is of high relevance for the Chinese authorities, but the concept is new to the Chinese government from both conceptual and policy perspective. So far China has emphasized frontier innovation, yet has recognized the importance of inclusive innovation in addressing increasing disparity between the rich and poor. In China many efforts are being made in the domain of inclusive innovation, but there is no clear strategy and implementation plan. This report aims to help build awareness and set the stage for the potential implementation and operationalization of inclusive innovation policy in China and possibly in other countries. This report is presented in four Chapters and an Executive Summary. Chapter I presents the concept of inclusive innovation and why it is relevant for China. Chapter II discusses the current landscape for inclusive innovation in China. Chapter III presents international experience and examples. Chapter IV outlines some policy options for consideration by the Chinese authorities.

The female labor force participation level in Turkey is currently very low at 27 percent compared with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD and European Union, or EU-19 averages of 61 and 64 percent respectively. This rate has been declining in the last 30 years from a level of 48 percent in 1980. This paper looks at the most recent trends and profiles of labor force participation of women in Turkey using three different household level data sources in available Turkey (HBS, LFS and TDHS) for the period 2003-2006. The paper also reports a multivatiate analysis on the probability of working for women, controlling for various characteristics.

It is a contentious issue whether large scale mining creates local employment, and the sector has been accused of hurting women's labor supply and economic opportunities. This paper uses the rapid expansion of mining in Sub-Saharan Africa to analyze local structural shifts. It matches 109 openings and 84 closings of industrial mines to survey data for 800,000 individuals and exploits the spatial-temporal variation. With mine opening, women living within 20 km of a mine switch from self-employment in agriculture to working in services or they leave the work force. Men switch from agriculture to skilled manual labor. Effects are stronger in years of high world prices. Mining creates local boom-bust economies in Africa, with permanent effects on women's labor market participation.

This paper reviews the linkages between urbanization and economic development. It articulates the relationship between urban density and potential increases in productivity, through specialization, complementarities in production, through the diffusion of knowledge and mimicry, and simply through size and scale. The factors limiting the efficient sizes of cities are analyzed. The paper reviews empirical knowledge, from underdeveloped countries as well as high-income industrial societies, about the importance and magnitudes of these productivity gains. The analysis documents the close link between gains in economic efficiency and the urbanization of populations in most parts of the world.

The aim of this report is to provide a broad overview of the current state of gender equality in Tajikistan. While the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region traditionally surpassed many other regions in terms of gender equality, this advantage has been eroding in recent decades. Particularly in Tajikistan, concerns have been raised that men and women have unequally born the consequences of economic, political, and social transitions after independence in 1991. The report examines several dimensions of gender equality both quantitatively and qualitatively. Tajikistan has set up a legal framework that enshrines principles of equality and non-discrimination, but better implementation results require continued efforts. Prevailing social norms and patriarchal systems of decision-making limit women s ability to make effective choices be it at home or at work. The paper is structured along the following lines. The first section introduces the idea of agency that will remain an important issue throughout the report. This is followed by an analysis of disparities in human capital endowment, including health and education. Gender gaps in the Tajik labor market and entrepreneurial activities of men and women are discussed in the fourth and fifth section. The final section concludes with some policy recommendations that might be beneficial for discussions among policy-makers, civil society actors, and development partners.

This paper analyzes the effects of land market restrictions on the rural labor market outcomes for women. The existing literature emphasizes two mechanisms through which land restrictions can affect the economic outcomes: the collateral value of land, and (in) security of property rights. Analysis of this paper focuses on an alternative mechanism where land restrictions increase costs of migration out of villages. The testable prediction of collateral effect is that both wages and labor force participation move in the same direction, and insecurity of property rights reduces labor force participation and increases wages. In contrast, if land restrictions work primarily through higher migration costs, labor force participation increases, while wages decline. For identification, this paper exploits a natural experiment in Sri Lanka where historical malaria played a unique role in land policy. This paper provides robust evidence of a positive effect of land restrictions on womens labor force participation, but a negative effect on female wages. The empirical results thus contradict a collateral or insecure property rights effect, but support migration costs as the primary mechanism.

It is increasingly recognized that young people are central to issues of crime and violence in South Africa. While research, policy and programming have historically focused on children and adults, there is a growing emphasis on youth as both victims and perpetrators of violence. This report presents the findings of a country assessment commissioned by the World Bank to support its incorporating human rights into youth violence programming and policy dialogues in Mexico and South Africa project. This aims to encourage policy dialogue on youth and violence with the South African government and other stakeholders. The report: (i) examines the current situation of youth violence in South Africa; (ii) summarizes the policy response by the government and the prevailing legal and institutional framework; (iii) identifies innovative programming by civil society organisations; and (iv) identifies entry points for deeper policy dialogue and improved interventions to address youth violence.

Life paths have become unpredictable. You may be here today and nowhere tomorrow, you may try to get or stay into the traditional business system, it will almost certainly crush you. So why not choose independence ?"There is nothing to lose and probably a lot to win, to direct one's own life and go independent."A full academic background, specialized skills or incredible talent are not enough. People working in most large, attractive and international companies feel exhausted or employed well below their capacities with limited mono-task jobs, within the framework of incompetent management based on fierce competition, corporatist decision-making processes and short-term profits. Why then learn thorough pattern-making only to adapt international models to local sizes? Demonstrate one's talent for being fired after the fashion show with no outlook for the future? Work long hours to be paid peanuts and know that others will benefit?Awareness of a hectic and unpredictable life may happen among young people who go from one temporary job to the other, among older employees who have worked in a single company for a long time and made redundant all of a sudden or among students who already know today that there is little future in traditional companies.The sense of working has much changed. Dominique Meda and Patricia Verdamin conducted qualitative work in 6 European countries between 2006 and 2008. They concluded that the key factors to describe a good working relationship were Engagement (more or less engaged) and Life paths (more or less linear). Types were not age-dependent, however, difficult socio-economic environment was stronger in young people. It leads them to believe that working is a journey full of hurdles, and makes them accustomed to managing risks and changes [1]. Other research carried out on Work conditions by the French Government [2] confirmed that a traditional implicit contract, « work hard for little money today, and build a fine career for tomorrow », is distrusted by younger French people, compared to a win-win contract.It then seems fairly wise to try and create one's own job.Young people or people with youthful energy go independent and invent a new business paradigm."Business is about making what you think and thinking what you make & sharing your knowledge and skills to grow faster in return."Youthful engagement may be found amongst youngsters and people of all ages who care for them, listen to them or are curious enough to discover what they want to change.Young people want to do things. What is important is to answer the question: "What have you been proud of doing, here, today?".They want to produce tangible and visible results. Ideas are not enough; issues and concrete solutions are better. Very often they exercise a trial and error process. They have that intuition that something should work first and be fine-tuned later.They work collectively, bringing together passionate people from varied backgrounds to think differently and creatively of issues and solutions. 12 is more than 1, and 60 more than 12, when all is about creating value. "This is all about harnessing energy. You should be here because you know a lot about uncommon or specific skills and you will help complete the jigsaw. And if not for this project, then for the next one!" admittedly, the North of Europe is better on that front than the South one.Collective intelligence should also be shared, on Internet, the most obvious network. Open-source platforms are often preferred: they publish online How to's (models, first prototypes, patterns etc.) for others to improve them and give them back to the community. The process is quick, solves relevant problems, and brings such social benefits as notoriety, reputation or sense of belonging.The Makers' movement has grown up from an intuition into Maker Fairs, Maker Spaces, Maker Thinkers and spread so much that it is now ready to be segmented and put into a business model. That's what TCBL aims at experimenting, Business labs applied to the T&C sector.[3]For independents, Enterprise and Innovation are recovering their original meanings, and can't go without social responsibility."Enterprise and Innovation : to take risks and make strong contribution for the future."Enterprise. A beautiful idea. We thought we had lost it, but the most recent 2008 crash made us realize that success can only be based on reality. Have a project, convince talented people to come on board, take risks to make it happen, face difficulties, succeed and share or reinvest the outcome of hard work. Real people, real economy, real money. Stakeholders make perfect sense here, not short-term, profit-concerned and dormant shareholders, but stakeholders who all bring their personal value.A survey by CEGOS, conducted in 5 European Countries, showed that work was key in the aspirations of 20-30 year olds (between 50 an 80%, secondary to family, which has always been Top 1 for years). Beyond earning a living (the primary reason to work), 53% want to find fulfilment at work or develop their competences (48%). Creating one's own job appealed to 47% of the Italian respondents, vs. 35% (UK), 32% (Spain), 27% (Germany) and 22% (France) [4].The Observatory of the French APCE (Agence pour la création d'entreprises) illustrates that younger generations (18-29 year olds) find it fairly obvious to start their own business, provided that their initial motivation is high and that they know how to manage properly (59% fully agree), have a creative idea (44% fully agree), accept risks and failures (40% fully agree), spend a great deal of time finding customers (33% fully agree) or finances (32% fully agree) [5].The world of Fashion has long lived on style, brands and images as key growth factors of the industry. Isn't this time to challenge or refine these assumptions? Or even to make a revolution? Let's come back to real enterprise that forces you to act, as quickly as possible, with a gut feeling or a vista beyond the mountains of information.Another beautiful idea. Innovation. Not that pseudo one which is limited to minor changes e.g. the size, colour or shape of a sleeve per se. Innovation reflects another vision of textile and clothing, all the more when engineers, scientists, hardware and software geeks, artists etc. meet and explore radically new inventions. Behind the concept of second-skin, you can imagine so many changes for clothes or textiles. Couldn't they change according to your moods and tempers? Couldn't you decide whether they show what's happening inside you and your home? Couldn't you interact with them?"Social responsibility is more than a belief; it's action."Repeated alerts have been heard for some time on the new environment context for development. Fair environment, social and business conditions are bases for fair development. Climate change is accelerating, so are the risks of desertification, rising waters, loss of bio-diversity etc. The human species is threatened with external factors as well as internal ones e.g. war, economic predation, after-life illusion etc. that produce millions of migrants around the world. Is this the world you want?Against the imminent feeling that chaos is on its way, what else could so-called developed countries do but be responsible and help so-called emerging countries e.g. 80% of the world population? Sustainable new models for development should be relevant, designed for all people on the planet to live better from their resources and their work, not only to survive."One way to create jobs in Africa is to develop local markets for local competitive companies… which has been done in the US, China and to some extent in Europe… Another way is to mutualize local companies and help them to be stronger together… to prevent young African people getting trapped into an illusion that global companies are the deus ex machina of their economic issues."[6]This type of analysis could also be made for European Independents, who are more conscious of their possible power and that could start acting upon it.Are independents a potential power? Definitely yes, they are. However, this is not La la land for independents. When there is an overall poor economic growth, you have to find adequate remedies for apparent shortcomings."In the French Textile and Clothing sector, 90,9% are very small businesses and independents."French figures show that 99,8% of the economic structure is about small businesses (less than 249 full-time workers) and 95,4% are very small businesses and independents (less than 10 FTW) for 48,7% of the FTW. [7] In the Textile and Clothing sector, 98,9% of the businesses are SMEs, 90,9% are very small businesses and independents for an estimated 55% of the full-time workers.[8] This is simply huge."TCBL network can help build up a new Gross National Happiness index."Dependence on a major customer, uneasy cash management, insufficient support from banks… but also greater fears of new status and responsibilities, multitasking, working hard… all these are adverse conditions that are imposed on independents.As a network, TCBL could provide part of an answer. For two years, it has been promoting top and varied skills and prevented them from getting forgotten or buried. It has matched talents with real needs in rder to collectively produce higher value solutions at a lower cost, providing full design support to empower all companies and offer people durable close ties.A lot of work is still to be done. There is a demand for invention of new business models so that the Textile and Clothing sector can become viable, sustainable and attractive, as well as repositioned in a virtuous circle. TCBL is a movement. They know where they want to go and they are confident that they can collectively reach those goals. Shall we say that it is an On-going Revolution?References[1] Generational approach to the social patterns of relation to work (SPREW), 2013[2] Enquête Conditions de travail 2013[3] Resources on www.tcbl.eu[4] Observatoire CEGOS, 3000 respondents, 20-30 year olds, 5 countries, May 2012[5] Observatoire APCE, 1024 respondents, 18-29 year olds, 2010[6] Think-tank L'Afrique des idées, www.terangaweb.com[7] France, Insee, 2011[8] France, IFM-Defi, 2015

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, intergenerational relations remain a key aspect of the future development and sustainability of the European social model. In the present paper, patterns of intergenerational support and the main driving factors behind individuals' transfer behavior are explored. In particular, the data form the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe are utilized to shed light on the main factors behind the likelihood and intensity of social support, and financial help provided to and received from other family members by ageing and elderly Europeans. The analysis also takes into consideration patterns and factors correlated with grandparenting activities. Finally, special attention is devoted to the condition of those individuals who are sandwiched between care obligations toward their elderly parents and young adult children. It is shown that the likelihood of the exchange of support between family generations is highest in Scandinavian countries and lowest in Southern Europe. The intensity of support follows an opposite North-South gradient. In addition, relevant gender-related inequalities are documented. In general, time-demanding support obligations are more likely to fall on the shoulders of women in the early stage of their later life, while mainly benefitting elderly men.

Namibia should be congratulated on their forward looking and energetic public sector because of the strategic vision of the leadership, as could be observed in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration (MHAI). MHAI is responsible for the technical and organizational infrastructureused to define, design, and administer the identity management system in Namibia.And from what could be observed there are systems and procedures in place to administer the registration of births and deaths and the linkage with the Namibian identification card. A complicating factor is the continued use of South West African (SWA) identity cards and the legacy register these represent. The fact that these have yet to be phased out represents both an administrative challenge which can delay identity verification processes, but also a security risk in that the issuance of the cards were based on standards that are different from today's requirements for strong verification and authentication practices. The digital connectivity is a prerequisite for the interoperability of databases for the purpose of efficient deployment and use of electronic identification cards, and as such is a cornerstone of an identity management system. Namibia appears to be in a transitional phase with respect to putting in place the infrastructure needed for making their electronic governance vision a reality.Introducing an e-ID card has the potential to increase the effectiveness of both the public and the private sectors, and improve service delivery to citizens and residents alike. The proposal to Namibia is to consider a multi-stepapproach to identification cards by phasing out the SWA and the current national identity card, while phasing in an electronic identification card.A number of policy decisions are necessary to establish a legal, institutional and technical basis for a digitally integrated identity management system for Namibia. Namibia has already advanced with respect to defining thefoundations for linking services and systems, as well as thinking ahead with respect to the development and implementation of the same.

Health financing in Bulgaria is organized in a way that should, in theory, allow the system to deliver good performance. In particular, the national health insurance fund was set up to provide universal coverage, and the provider-payment system contains elements of international best practices. The hospital-centric service delivery structure is not well targeted to the predominant and growing burden of non-communicable diseases, and loopholes in the provider-payment system reinforce this bias toward expensive hospital care. The first part of this report presents a health financing diagnostic to assist the Government of Bulgaria in developing health financing reform options that improve the efficiency, equity, and long-term sustainability of the Bulgarian health system. The second part reviews the reform agenda currently envisaged by the government with a focus on health financing aspects. It presents practical suggestions, drawn from international experience, which should support the government as it moves toward implementing its reform agenda. These suggestions aim to enhance the reforms' capacity to address some of the performance gaps highlighted in part one with respect to efficiency, sustainability, and capacity to provide financial protection.

The population of Ethiopia is still growing by 2.6% per annum mainly due to high fertility of 4.8 children per woman. Though increasing in the current decade, only about a quarter of married women used family planning methods in 2011. Though early childhood mortality diminished in recent years, this decline was not statistically significant in infant mortality. Levels and extent of reductions in the three components of population change and their relationships varied across different regions and by urban-rural setting in the country. Previous studies elsewhere showed relationship between population dynamics and health. Studies also revealed that intervention in one component of population change affects another component. A body of literature on insurance and replacement fertility response of childhood mortality were documented in least developing countries. Moreover, selection, disruption, adaptation, environmental theories had also documented the relationship between migration with fertility and under-five mortality. Migration might select people with different fertility behavior and childhood mortality experience compared to those without such behavior. If those with less number of children migrate, the fertility and child mortality of non-migrants in the place of origin would be inflated compared to those of the migrants. Among the latter group, the disruption due to migration might contribute to reduction in fertility or increase in early childhood mortality. Besides, the group might adapt the fertility behavior of the population in the area of destination. In this regard, this thesis aimed at measuring levels of and assessing relationships between fertility, contraception, under-five mortality and migration in the designated area of the study. It also tried to identify main proximate and distal factors of each of these components of population change in the context of the recently introduced village-based health extension program, reproductive health strategy and population policy in the densely populated Butajira District of South Central Ethiopia. Methods The study was hosted by the Butajira Demographic Surveillance System which is located about 135 kms from Addis Ababa in the southern direction. Qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in this study. The quantitative research used two data sources. The longitudinal surveillance database up to the end of 2008 was extracted to recruit study women of reproductive age for the cross-sectional study which aimed at measuring levels and identifying determinants of fertility, contraception and the unmet need of family planning. The database was also used to have a detailed insight into early childhood mortality and out-migration in the district. Standard data collection instruments of the INDEPTH-Network and Measure DHS were contextually adapted for the longitudinal database and the cross-sectional survey respectively. A priori focus group discussions were held to incorporate the community's terminologies and opinions. A total of 11,133 women of reproductive age were recruited from the surveillance database and 9,996 of them responded positively. Especially trained and experienced field staff collected the data. There was rigorous supervision. Data sources were managed by softwares having internal consistency checking mechanisms. Cleaning was done at desk. Serious anomalies were taken back to the field for reconciliation, while others were rectified by imputing values from logical flows in the questionnaire. Frequency distributions, cross-tabulations and graphical presentations were done. Event history analysis was used to calculate person time of exposure, incidence and prevalence rates using longitudinal data. Odds ratio along with the 95% confidence interval in binary logistic regression was used to determine association between covariates and the binary outcome of interest. In the case of fertility, Bongaart's model to measure the inhibition effects of proximate determinants and the incidence rate ratio in Poisson regression along with the 95% confidence interval was used to measure the association between fertility and covariates. Poisson regression was also used to measure associations of background characteristics with out-migration and under-five mortality. Assumptions of all the statistical models used in this study were checked. Results The total fertility rate of 5.3 children per woman was high and comparable to the rest of Ethiopia with rural-urban disparity (Highland, TFR=5.7, Lowland, TFR=6.6 and Urban, TFR=3.3). Postpartum infecundability due to breastfeeding (Ci=0.68) significantly deducted fertility from its biological maximum. The contribution of contraception (Cc-u=0.57, Cc-e=0.43) and nonmarriage (Cm-u=0.53, Cm-e=0.41) was important among urbanites and educated women. Abortion contributed a significant role to reduce fertility among school youth (Ca=0.76). The fertility incidence rate ratio was 1.38: 95% CI (1.27, 1.49) times higher among those married before their 15 birthday, 1.24: 95% CI (1.10, 1.39) times higher among uneducated, 1.95: 95% CI (1.84, 2.06) times higher among those families with large size, 1.67: 95% CI (1.59, 1.76) times higher with child death experience and 1.06: 95% CI (1.01, 1.13) times higher among women living in food-secured households compared to their counterparts. Against other findings, fertility was 1.09: 95% CI (1.04, 1.15) significantly higher among women with no child sex preference. Besides, migration status of women did not seem to predict their fertility levels (1.02: 95% CI (0.97, 1.07)). The contraceptive prevalence rate of 25.4%: 95% CI (24.2, 26.5) in Butajira District was comparable though unmet need of 52.4%: 95% CI (51.1, 53.7) was very high compared to national and regional estimates. Full stock out and absence of methods' mix, religion, complaints related to providers and methods, assumption of having proper diet, and optimum workload when using family planning methods were barriers of contraceptive use mentioned by study women in the area. The odds of contraception was 2.3: 95% CI (1.66, 3.18) times higher among urbanites, 1.99: 95% CI (1.38, 2.88) times higher among those completed secondary level of education and 1.5: 95% CI (1.12, 2.01) times higher among women whose partners completed secondary plus level of education, 1.3: 95% CI (1.13, 1.5) times higher among women with no experience of child death, 2.21: (1.8, 2.7) times higher among couples who discussed on contraception and 2.59: 95% CI (2.11, 3.17) times higher among women whose partners' support family planning use compared to their counterparts. Under-five mortality level of 29 per 1000: 95% CI (27.4, 31.8) in the District recorded over the 22 years of surveillance was low. The difference between infant mortality of 86.6 per 1000: 95% CI (77.4, 96.9) and child mortality of 19.2 per 1000: 95% CI (17.4, 21.3) was higher. Compared to their counterparts, the study also showed 0.85: 95% CI (0.79, 0.80) times lower under-five mortality among female children, 1.14: 95% CI (1.03, 1.25) times higher under five mortality among Muslim and 15.24: 95% CI (13.75, 16.89) times higher among minority Christian families, 1.31: 95% CI (1.04, 1.66) and 2.02: 95% CI (1.58, 2.59) times higher among rural highlanders and rural lowlanders respectively, 1.54: (1.43, 1.67) times higher among families owning oxen, and 1.92: 95% CI (1.66, 2.22) times higher among families owning houses and 2.4: 95% CI (1.89, 2.06) times higher among those living in rented houses and 2.13: 95% CI (1.79, 2.53) times higher in children living in houses roofed with thatched grass, and 1.46: 95% CI (1.26, 1.69) times higher among those living in the neighborhoods located 5-9 kilometers away from Butajira zonal hospital. The study also revealed high out-migration of 3.97 per 100 person years (3.93, 4.01) in the district. The risk of out-migration was 0.94: 95% CI (0.92, 0.96) times lower among females, 1.9: 95% CI (1.85, 1.96), 1.77: 95% CI (1.71, 1.82), 1.55: 95% CI (1.49, 1.62), 1.23: 95% CI (1.17, 1.29) or 2.82: 95% CI (2.66, 2.98), 1.29: 95% CI (1.26, 1.32), 4.71: 95% CI (4.56, 4.87), 1.18: 95% CI (1.15, 1.22), 1.58: 95% CI (1.52, 1.64) and 2.11: 95% (2.04, 2.18) times higher among teenagers, the youth, unmarried, primary school completes or above, Orthodox and minority Christians, urbanites, and those living in rented houses and owned by others compared to their respective counterparts. Some relationship between the three components of population change was also observed. There was statistically significant association between early childhood mortality and fertility (6.07: 95% CI (5.36, 6.87)). However, the association between fertility and migration status was not statistically significant (1.05: 95% CI (0.92, 1.19)). Neither was the association between underfive mortality and migration statistically significant (1.04: 95% CI (0.92, 1.19)). Conclusions and Recommendations Fertility was still high in the study community with high rural urban disparity. The most effective proximate determinant to deduct fertility from its biological maximum level was non-marriage due to disruption of marriage through migration of one of the partners. The contribution of contraception and non-marriage was also important among urbanites and educated women. Postpartum infecundability also significantly reduced fertility from its biological maximum in rural areas and among uneducated women. Abortion had also played an important role in reducing fertility among in-school youth. Delayed marriage, higher education, smaller family size, absence of child death in the family, and living in food-secured households were also significantly associated with small number of children. Besides, fertility was significantly higher among women with no child sex preference. However, migration status of women was not statistically significant. The contraceptive prevalence rate in Butajira District was still low, though unmet need was very high. Barrier to contraception in the area included, stock out and absence of preferred family planning methods, religion, complaints related to providers and methods, assumption of having proper diet, and optimum workload when using family planning methods. Significant predictors of contraception in the district included urban residence, women's and their partners' educational status, child death experience, couple's discussion on contraception, and partners' support. The magnitude of overall early childhood mortality levels in the district recorded over the 22 years of surveillance, though low compared to the national and regional level was still high. Infant mortality was higher than child mortality in the district. Under-five mortality was significantly higher among male children, families confessing Muslim and non-Orthodox Christian denominations, rural residents, families owning oxen, those having their own houses, families living in rent-free houses, households living in houses with roofs of thatched grass, and families living in neighborhoods located between 5-9 kilometers from the zonal hospital as compared with their counterparts. A high incidence of out-migration was observed in the district with higher level among males, teenagers, the youth, primary and secondary education or above completes, those not in marital unions, Christians, urbanites, and families in rented and owed houses compared to those in owned ones. This study had also showed statistically significant association between early childhood mortality and fertility. The association between fertility and migration was not statistically significant. Neither was the case between early childhood mortality and migration in the study area. We recommend that the ills of fast population growth and its consequences should be intensively informed to the public. Women must be encouraged to sustain the practice of extended breastfeeding. Efforts should also be exerted to increase contraceptive use in rural communities. Besides, in-school youth should be aware of post-abortion complications and youth friendly family planning methods to reduce fertility, maternal mortality and childhood mortality in the community. Longer years of women's education should be scaled up. Health systems in Butajira District and the capacity of staff should be strengthened. The Government should avail family planning methods with appropriate method mix and increase competence of providers on managing temporary side effects. More rigorous child and maternal health education should be channeled through village-based health extension workers. Household hygiene, antenatal care, immunization and facility based delivery in the district should be scaled up. More efforts should also be exerted to improve the quality of residential houses. An insurance scheme to care for the elderly should be put in place to bring about change in the behavior of families towards small family size. We suggest that local authorities need to facilitate local employment and housing opportunities for retaining young and educated people in their own areas, to safeguard the future well-being of the entire population